You can tell a lot about a country by the days its people make a special point of noting, even if not as a formal holiday. In countries with a strong religious tradition, for example, people might take special note of many saints’ days. Countries that have fought long wars take note of days such as VE or VJ or D-Day.
In our own commercial society most everyone now knows Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving when retailers hope to get into the black (make a profit); Cyber Monday is when more shoppers do their holiday shopping online rather than in stores; and Super Saturday, tomorrow, is when last minute Christmas shoppers are expected to go to the mall and buy gifts they haven’t yet purchased.
So I’ve been thinking. If some shopping-related days are part of modern Americans’ consciousness, why shouldn’t we also set aside special days to commemorate that other overdone American affliction — investing.
In this regard, I’m thinking Bailout Tuesday might be a good way to get such an investing calendar started. This would mark the day when our government decided the best way to save Main Street was to save Wall Street, instead of focusing on first saving Main Street as the best way to save not only Wall Street but the financial community generally.
And who could doubt a calendar rationale for a Bonus Wednesday, the day that Goldman Sachs announced bonuses during a deep recession that exceeded the national budgets of 100 of the world’s poorest countries. An extraordinary achievement, and one that certainly deserves to be remembered.
Then we might go with a Buyout Thursday, when large banks that might have had their top people’s compensation limited if they were still partially owned by the government, managed to peddle diluted shares to the public so these best and brightest could get the comp to which they believe themselves entitled. Of course there’s Beatback Sunday as well, an up-and-comer, when we can all give thanks that Wall Street hirelings in Congress and the Administration successfully concoct excuses for not enacting genuine market reforms.
Big buck recipients on The Street are celebrating big time this holiday season. Why not give them their own special days that we might share in their joy — at least vicariously, since that’s the only way most of us currently seem to be sharing their good fortune.